Even with cameras in the All-Star clubhouses, Fox couldn't have shown the traditional pregame pep talk given the American League by perennial All-Star right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. Not only do his anti-National League diatribes work like WD-40 – the AL hasn't lost an All-Star Game since he first made one as a “rookie” in 2001 – but they reveal that Ichiro knows a lot more English than he lets on.

Most of it unprintable.

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is the one who always orders the normally low-key but mischievous Ichiro to make what Larry Stone of the Seattle Times calls his “Win One for the Bleeper” speech. This year's wild-eyed, obscenity-filled rant was thusly recalled by temporary teammate Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins:

“(Suzuki) was sitting in the locker back there, and David Ortiz said, 'Ichi's got something to say.' And then he pops out and everybody started dying. I had no idea it was coming. It was hilarious. If you've never seen it, it's definitely something pretty funny.”

You won't see it. Not on family TV.

“That's what gets you, too, is hearing him say what he says,” Morneau said. “I've talked to him a little bit when he gets to first, but I didn't know he knew those words.”

Oh, he knows them. Ichiro clearly has a grasp of American slang, though he prefers almost always to speak through his interpreter. His pregame speeches come with no translation necessary – and total focus.

“I'm concentrating more at that moment,” said Ichiro, “than I am in the game.”

Ex-Aztec making mark

While well on his way to being the No. 1 overall pick in next June's draft – he's already on his way to Beijing as the rare collegiate player named to the U.S. Olympic Team – Stephen Strasburg is not the only dude who pitched for Tony Gwynn at San Diego State who has caused a stir lately.

Already big in the plans of the Boston Red Sox is right-hander Justin Masterson, an ex-Aztec whose sinking fastball and size (6 feet 6, 250 pounds) warranted a second-round pick (71st overall) by the Red Sox in 2006. Called up earlier this season as an emergency replacement, Masterson stuck around long enough for nine starts, a 4-3 record and 3.67 ERA.

His bugaboo proved to be lefty hitters, who drew 21 walks and hit six homers off him in 54 innings. But his sinker is so effective against righties that the Red Sox have sent him back to Triple-A Pawtucket for a crash course in Reliever 101.

“It doesn't mean I'm not going to be a starter again,” Masterson said. “It was one of those things where I came on a team where the five starters were good and they said, 'We'd really like to use you in the 'pen.' I said, 'Will that keep me on the team?' They said, 'Yeah.'

“Whatever it is, I just love to pitch. That gets me back up (to Boston).”

Perhaps more interesting is the route Masterson has taken to this point. The son of an evangelical pastor, he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Beavercreek, Ohio, starting his college career at tiny Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind. He was a dominant pitcher at the NAIA level, posting a 20-8 record and 1.85 ERA while striking out 185 in the same number of innings.

It was while pitching for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League in 2005 that Masterson was first introduced not only to the role of closer, but also to Bruce Billings, a Morse High product who was Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year at SDSU. Billings dropped Masterson's name to Gwynn, who obliged Masterson's desire to gain some Division I experience with the Aztecs.

Mind of its own

Happen to see that wicked bases-loaded, two-out, third strike from Orioles lefty George Sherrill that Adrian Gonzalez chased in the 12th inning at Yankee Stadium? The movement prompted Rays catcher Dioner Navarro, who backhanded the ball, to compliment Sherrill on his “nice cutter.”

“I don't throw a cutter,” said a mystified but laughing Sherrill, admitting that he had no idea why that pitch acted the way it did. “It looked like it was a strike and then all the sudden it just cut. We were lucky.”

Travel-loggers

Three of the four active players who have appeared in the most major league ballparks – Chris Gomez (47), Gary Sheffield (47), Ken Griffey Jr. (45) and Brad Ausmus (44) – have played for the Padres.

“I think part of it is that in the time that I'm playing it's the era of the new baseball stadium,” said Ausmus, a longtime North County resident who's still catching with the Astros. “When I was growing up in Connecticut there was only one baseball stadium, and that was Fenway Park, in my mind.”

Ausmus is known primarily for his defensive prowess, but for the record, he actually has at least three hits in every place he's played. A career .252 hitter, his two highest National League averages by far are at AT&T Park in San Francisco (.319) and Petco (.318). Go figure.

The Union-Tribune contributes to – and uses information from – a national network of major league correspondents.